Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. eBook

John MacGillivray

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 302 pages of information about Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850..

and murdered by these savages, our newly awakened
hope already beginning to fail, when we saw Captain
Dobson and Dr. Vallack, accompanied by Jackey and
a man named Barrett (who had been wounded a few days
before in the arm by a barbed spear) approaching towards
us, across the creek. I and my companion, who
was preserved with me, must ever be grateful for the
prompt courage with which these persons, at the risk
of their own lives, came to our assistance, through
the scrub and mangroves, a distance of about three
miles, surrounded as they were all the way by a large
number of armed natives.

I was reduced almost to a skeleton. The elbow
bone of my right arm was through the skin, as also
the bone of my right hip. My legs also were swollen
to an enormous size. Goddard walked to the boat,
but I could not do so without the assistance of Captain
Dobson and Dr. Vallack, and I had to be carried altogether
a part of the distance. The others, Jackey and
Barrett, kept a lookout for the blacks. We were
unable to bring many things from the camp. The
principal were, the firearms and one parcel of my
seeds, which I had managed to keep dry, containing
eighty-seven species. All my specimens were left
behind, which I regretted very much: for though
much injured, the collection contained specimens of
very beautiful trees, shrubs, and orchideae.
I could also only secure an abstract of my journal,
except that portion of it from 13th November to 30th
December, which I have in full. My original journal,
with a botanical work which had been kindly lent me
by a friend in Sydney for the expedition, was left
behind. We got safely on board the Ariel; and
after a very long passage, arrived in Sydney.

I am confident that no man could have done more for
the safety of the party than was done by Mr. Kennedy,
nor could any man have exerted himself more than he,
in the most distressing circumstances of our perilous
journey. He walked by far the greater part of
the distance, giving his own horses for the use of
the weak men, and the general service of the expedition.
I never rode but two hours all through the journey,
and that was on two successive days when we were in
the vicinity of Cape Sidmouth, and I was suffering
from bad feet.

The unfortunate death of our brave and generous leader,
deeply and extensively as I know it to have been lamented,
can have no more sincere mourner than myself.

The tale of his sufferings and those of his party
has already been read and sympathised over by hundreds,
and it would ill become me to add anything to the
artless narrative of the faithful and true-hearted
Jackey, who having tended his last moments, and closed
his eyes, was the first, perhaps the most disinterested,
bewailer of his unhappy fate.